Public engagement

Members of the Ferguson Centre are committed to two-way knowledge transfer between scholars and non-scholars, as illustrated by the examples below.

Dr Lotte Hughes' work cited in UN report

Karima Bennoune, who became the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights in 2015, has cited work by Lotte Hughes in her first report to the UN.  Hughes was invited to speak at the   “Negotiating Cultural Rights” conference at the University of Copenhagen in November 2015.  The conference was organised by Prof. Helle Porsdam (Copenhagen) and Asst. Prof. Lucky Belder (University of Utrecht). Each speaker was asked to comment on one of the reports by outgoing cultural rights Special Rapporteur Farida Shaheed; both the incoming and the outgoing rapporteurs were present.   Hughes responded to Shaheed’s first report in 2010, entitled ‘Implementing cultural rights (nature, issues at stake and challenges)’.  Bennoune has picked up on Hughes’ warning that the term ‘community’ should not be used uncritically and is planning to keep this idea in mind as she takes her work forward.  The full report is available through the website of the office of High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Past examples of public engagement